Readers of our You tell us threads have asked for more articles written from a personal perspective. In this series, we've commissioned Cif commenters to write above the line about their own experiences. Each person will tackle a subject from a distinctive angle and make policy recommendations in the hope that they will inspire others to comment below the line. After examining mental health and fatherhood, we're now looking at unemployment.

Due to the delicate and personal nature of the debate, moderation will be strict and personal abuse will not be tolerated.

My story: Having worked all my adult life, I was a touch gutted to have to sign-on early this year. Temping was slow and funds were low. Although I had picked up a few days here and there, I needed something to bridge the gap before the next job came along. The biggest obstacle I found to getting back into work after eight weeks of unemployment was the inability of the welfare system to understand and work around any non-traditional working patterns. This leaves anyone needing flexible work rather abandoned.

The first hurdle was, of course, explaining my previous working life – an actor who temps in admin is too confusing, it seems. Instead of getting advice on the local jobs market or training, I was treated as an annoying anomaly that didn't fit nicely into the boxes on the forms. The second hurdle came when I actually got a few days of work. After the administrative nightmare that is stopping and then restarting a jobseeker's allowance claim, I found that working two days meant a loss of a total of five days' worth of benefit. I had sought, found and declared work as I was required to, but ended up being penalised. I found it was not economically viable to take work that lasted less than two weeks.

This stopping and starting of benefits (something temps are bound to need) led to such delays in the process that when I finally got a long-term booking, I was in severe financial difficulty. So I jumped the third and final hurdle into work by means of a crisis loan – and my, the irony – I had to take an afternoon off work in order to get a sum that totalled less than I would have eventually been paid had I stayed at work. From start to finish, I would have been better off doing what many temps do: lie and not declare my work.

My recommendation: This complete lack of common sense seems to stem from overly rigid processes that presume everyone should be, and will be, working in the same pattern. I suggest that the only real solution to this has to be people focused. Stop tying up Jobcentre Plus staff and jobseekers in reams of paperwork. Free up staff to use their own common sense, their own local knowledge of work and, crucially, their own judgement in each individual case. This country needs temps, and temping can be a fantastic choice – be it a way to get back into work after children, or after a period of unemployment. But, as it stands, we are squandering the talents of part of our workforce because bureaucracy doesn't allow for creativity or flexibility. Why not make Jobcentre Plus staff more like recruiting agents and less like mindless automatons?

My story: I became unemployed last year and applied for jobseeker's allowance. I completed a 52-page application form and attended an "interview" with a claims assessor at the Jobcentre Plus. I was told that as I was a self-employed architect and the director of a limited company, I would not be entitled to my £65.45 a week unless I dissolved my company first and "made myself available for work". I was distraught, depressed, unemployed and about to strike off the company I had worked so hard to build.

I spoke with a senior figure at Jobcentre Plus HQ, who told me that my assessment had been mishandled. I wasn't required to strike off my company after all. They "allowed" me 13 weeks to find an architect position, and after that I had to accept any job offered. I applied to the local council for housing benefit to pay my rent. Circumstances decreed that I was only entitled to housing benefit for a one-bedroom flat, so I had to move out. Rather than move to a council flat, I lied about my income, prepared myself for debt and took a flat suitable for my children.

I accepted architectural work after 14 weeks and informed Jobcentre Plus. They told me that my jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit would stop immediately. I wouldn't be paid for at least two months for my new work, but because I was now "unavailable for work", I could no longer claim any benefits. Being in financial limbo, I lied again.

I had gone from being a professional architect running a practice with a modest turnover to a lying benefit cheat trying to survive, literally. Some surveys estimate a third of all architects are out of work because of the recession.

My recommendation: I think benefit claims assessors, being the first point of contact with recently redundant claimants, should be better trained to deal with depressed, fearful, and in some cases borderline suicidal human beings. Also, the system of claiming separately for jobseeker's allowance and housing benefit is ridiculous. If you are in need of £65.45 a week to live, you probably cannot afford to pay your rent. One application to suit both please, and a bit thinner than 52 pages. We are not all scroungers looking to milk the state. Some of us are hard-working individuals looking for a light in a very dark tunnel.

My story: I first signed-on at 16. You could do that back then, because I'd moved out of my parents' house. Two weeks later I moved back in, 17 days after that I moved back out. When I went to make a fresh claim, I was told £30 had been chopped off the benefit: "If you'd maintained the claim, you'd have the old rate, but the regs have changed." I learnt early on that the system was hardly fair. I used to play boardgames and would hitchhike around the country to conventions and "house meets". Friends would produce fanzines and have collation parties. Well, it passed a couple of years. I've since had other, shorter periods of unemployment, and to maintain my own sanity I've always kept busy.

A friend once asked: "What you been up to?" "Been on the dole," I replied. "Canna be doin' wi that," he said. "All that runnin' around either workin'. Or chasin' work." The truth being that unless you want to sit around eating Farmfoods finest, watching Freeview and playing Xbox games, you have to supplement your income. Common methods are selling "grey import" tobacco or booze-cruise beer, selling grass and pills, or working cash in hand. Waiting, barwork, labouring, field work, painting and decorating also do the trick: any sort of "homer" or "bit on the qt".

Some try entrepreneurship. Setting up a club night, artspace or other "legit" businesses. Like my gaming phase, it used to be an option to sign-on and try some crazy stuff like being a sculptor, or forming a band. Jarvis Cocker, I think, says he did as much. But back in the real life, the amount of money you have to subsist on, travel, buy materials, use as start-up money and get drunk on would fall to the point of inspiration not being available without resorting to criminality. It is far from simple to take qualifications or other means of "self-improvement" like a driving test, PSV or forklift. How do you pay for it? And how do you continue to prove you are actively seeking work?

My recommendation: Volunteering can be a lifeline. Gaining experience or qualifications could lead to the opportunity to trade it up to paid employment. You can do as many voluntary hours as you like, as long as you tell the dole. Life – like the internet – can be 99% shit, and, unless you know what you are looking for, you'll spend a lot of time wading.

My story: Despite suffering with a mental disorder and depression, growing up in Nepal I received a good education, healthcare, and strong family support. I never thought I would suffer a lot in the future because of the social stigma and discrimination associated with being mentally ill. Sadly, I found out that my education and competences would play no part in me finding a dignified job.

I finished my MA in English literature in 2005, and started my first job in 2006 working in investigative journalism. I was not happy with my work, because I was forced to hide my mental health problems from my colleagues. I felt guilty, and used to be obsessed with social fear. At the end of 2007, my mental health broke down. I left work and rested for few months. I blamed myself for living an artificial life, hiding my real "self" from friends and society.

In early 2008, I decided to expose publicly my mental suffering. Overnight, I became an alien to my community and society, and my social contacts almost collapsed. My exposure also had a negative impact on my family. I applied for jobs in many places, mentioning I had mentally recovered on my CV, but was trusted by none. But I took it as a golden opportunity to explore this suppressed aspect of a lot of people's lives. My education and social background gave me the privilege to combat it.

My story: I lost my job the day after Lehmans fell in September 2008, and tumbled into the world of jobseeker's allowance. I would like to share my experience on surviving on £60.50 per week (as it was then; it's now £65.45 for singles over 25).

• Haunt the "going-off aisle" in the supermarket – things stamped with today's date last for several more days and they're at least 50% off. It's akin to MasterChef's ingredients test – a challenge to put together a nutritious meal with a limited range of available ingredients.

• Fare-dodging on public transport where possible – ie at train stations with no barriers. Fare inspectors' ambushes are possible, but even being penalised £20 works out cheaper than buying tickets.

• Walk – everywhere. And then walk further.

• No social life outside BBC iPlayer. A £15-per-month broadband connection is a worthwhile cost – and iPlayer is a godsend for someone sans TV. I get more BBC channels than I would with a bog-standard television licence, and can watch TV programmes or movies at any time.

• Forget data-mining fears and utilise those supplier points. Morrisons is great, but Sainsbury's and Boots offer points. Use them.

• Do laundry at least twice as infrequently as recommended for social harmony. Use lots of cut-price deodorant – utilising those Boots points. Use the cheapest shampoos and conditioners – they're very adequate.

• Go to bed in the dead of winter wearing two sets of pyjamas, socks, and scarf/hat to avoid running the heating.

• Get a water meter, you can pay far less (showering every day – are you mad? Running water while cleaning teeth – have you completely lost your mind?)

What I learned: Housing – ay, here's the rub. If I hadn't had housing benefit paying my (interest-only) mortgage I would now be homeless, and unable to blog about my experience. Of course, I had to totally drain my savings to be eligible for this, and for council tax benefit. There is no way in Britain to live solely on jobseeker's allowance without housing benefit, full stop. Jobseeker's allowance may pay for washing-up liquid and the occasional transport penalty, but if you can't pay your rent/mortgage, you cannot live. The issue for me isn't the Jobseeker's allowance amount, it's whether or not you will be eligible for housing and council tax benefit, too.

Getting housing/council tax benefit was a piece of cake, provided I could prove I had no cash reserves. But getting to the point of having no savings whatsoever, I was in no position to consider jobs that paid less than the amount necessary to pay my mortgage – and the majority of Jobcentre Plus availabilities were minimum wage. As long as I was unemployed, having my mortgage interest paid and getting my £60 a week for cut-price veg, I had no incentive whatsoever to take any job Jobcentre Plus offered. Should we not have housing benefit? Sure, if the jobs available made it worthwhile not getting that benefit. But if people don't have homes to live in, how can they look for work?

My story: I have in front of me over fifty job description printouts from the job centre, for low skilled and low paid jobs. Most of these say "for details of how to apply, phone jobseeker direct". Each printout has a reference quote which you quote to the jobseeker direct staff member. This phone line is often busy. Each time you phone up, you have to give your details, name, address and national insurance number. Then and only then can you enter your reference quote. Each call centre worker will only process three of these references in one phone call. This takes at least 15 minutes.

I had a verbal exchange with a call centre worker who categorically refused to give me the contact details of a job requiring a food hygiene certificate (a simple one day course that I could have done that weekend), because I did not have one. I could learn the principles of food safety with two hours spent on the Internet. Would I then know the principles of food hygiene? Yes. Would I have a certificate saying so? No. Au revoir, then, with my dreams of £5.85 an hour. This rigidity is making human hands idle.

I also question the "previous experience essential" clause - even for low skilled, low paid jobs. Do employers no longer think of workers as autonomous human beings who have the capacity to learn on the job? Likewise, many jobs have ceilings where workers are unable to progress unless they have a piece of paper saying "degree", and where decades of experience do not count. When I speak to my father and similar people of his age, it seems so archaic that they could just "get a job". I cannot speak from personal experience but through many conversations with older people, there clearly was a "hands on" attitude to work then.

My recommendation: Scrap the system of having to phone up Job Seeker direct. All jobs advertised should simply have an address to send/email your CV to. On a wider scale, there needs to be more skills and vocational training in education, although not to the detriment of academic learning. There needs to be a comprehensive job creation programme, providing specialist skills training at the same time. Employers must accept that people are capable and autonomous people, not units of labour and statistics. Less formality, a more hands on approach to labour. End degree requirements for jobs that clearly don't require them.

• The next people's panel will be about care. If you are a Cif commenter, a carer or are being cared of, and interested in participating, e-mail Jessica Reed with a few lines about yourself and the specific angle you'd like to tackle.